Okay, I know many of you do not fruitcake, but I am in the minority. I am one of those who still, for example, makes a Christmas pudding. I begin it on Stir Up Sunday, which was 24 November this year.

For those who do not know of Stir-up Sunday, it is “an informal term in Catholic and Anglican churches for the last Sunday before the season of Advent. It gets its name from the beginning of the collect for the day in the Book of Common Prayer, which begins with the words, “Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people…”, but it has become associated with the custom of making the Christmas puddings on that day. [Oxford English Dictionary] The Christmas pudding is one of the essential British Christmas traditions and is said to have been introduced to Britain by Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria (the reality is that the meat-less version was introduced from Germany by George I in 1714). Most recipes for Christmas pudding require it to be cooked well in advance of Christmas and then reheated on Christmas Day, so the collect of the day served as a useful reminder.

If one is writing a Christmas tale set in the Regency, Stir Up Sunday is often inserted. I did so in A Touch of Grace, book 4 of my Realm series. It is what finally brings the hero Lord Gabriel Crowden, Marquis of Godown, and the heroine Miss Grace Nelson together. Of course, I pull them apart again, just for good measure, but that is material for another post.

“Traditionally, families gather together in the kitchen of their homes to mix and steam Christmas pudding on Stir-up Sunday. Parents teach their children how to mix ingredients for the pudding. Everyone takes a turn to stir the pudding mix, for each person involved is able to make a special wish for the year ahead. Practically, stirring the mixture is hard work, therefore as many people as possible are involved. By tradition the pudding mixture is stirred from East to West in honor of the three wise men who visited the baby Jesus.” [Christmas Pudding “Stir Up Sunday]

Days of the Year tells us, “While none of us know the true creator of the fruitcake, many historians believe that fruitcakes originated from Rome, over 2,000 years ago! Historians believe that one of the earliest recipes known comes from ancient Rome listing pomegranate seeds, pine nuts, and raisins that were mixed into a barley mash. Then there are records from the Middle Ages documenting that they added honey, spices, and preserved fruits into the original mix.

“Starting in the 16th century, sugar from the American Colonies along with the discovery that high concentrations of sugar could preserve fruits, ended up creating an enormous excess of candied fruits, thus resulting in making fruit cakes more affordable and popular in regions around the world. The fruitcakes that began in the Roman era are quite different from today, which can be iced, gluten-free, lactose-free, diabetic, alcoholic, or just a regular old fruitcake.

“It is said that in the 18^th century, European-made fruitcakes were banned from production for having too much butter and sugar. These ingredients were restricted for being unhealthy. After these cakes were allowed to be sold again in the 19^th century, they were common in high-class European weddings.

“Fruitcakes have an incredible shelf life, they can remain on the shelves for many, many years and still be edible and non-harmful to the human body. An example of this is in a 2003 episode of The Tonight Show, where Jay Leno sampled a piece of a fruitcake baked in 1878 which was kept as an heirloom by a family in Michigan.

“The reason that fruitcakes can remain edible for long periods of time is actually in the cooking methods. The fruits and nuts used are often dried and then soaked in a sugar substance, which means that they can remain on the shelf without adding preservatives. In addition to this method, some recipes also include alcohol, or involve an alcohol-soaked storage cloth during the baking process, removing harmful bacteria that decrease the shelf life.

As to literary references, did you know, “Truman Capote, known for his book In Cold Blood, discussed the popular dessert in his short story “A Christmas Memory.” Originally published in Mademoiselle magazine in December 1956, A Christmas Memory was reprinted in The Selected Writings of Truman Capote in 1963. The largely autobiographical story, which is set in the 1930s, describes a period in the lives of the seven-year-old narrator and an elderly woman who is his distant cousin and best friend. The woman was Nanny Faulk, elder sister of the household where Capote’s wayward parents deposited him as a young boy. Nanny, whom everyone called Sook, was thought to be developmentally disabled. But Capote later wrote a friend, “I had an elderly cousin, the woman in my story ‘A Christmas Memory,’ who was a genius.”[“”A Christmas Memory” and a Season’s Truths”. The Attic.]

“The family is very poor, but Buddy looks forward to Christmas every year nevertheless, and he and his elderly cousin save their pennies for this occasion.  Every year at Christmastime, Buddy and his friend collect pecans and buy other ingredients to make fruitcakes; although set during Prohibition, this includes whiskey, which they buy from a scary—but ultimately friendly—Indian bootlegger named Haha Jones.  They send the cakes to acquaintances they have met only once or twice, and to people they’ve never met at all, like President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.”

In a sad but poignant ending, they spend one finally Christmas together. The following year, the boy is sent to military school.  Although Buddy and his friend keep up a constant correspondence, this is unable to last because his elderly cousin suffers more and more the ravages of old age, and slips into dementia.  Soon, she is unable to remember who Buddy is, and not long after, she passes away.

I remember watching this tale spins out in a Hallmark television adaptation in 1997. This production starred Eric Lloyd as Buddy and Patty Duke as Sook.

Truman Capote further explored the lives of Buddy and Sook in his story “The Thanksgiving Visitor,” which also was adapted for television. The 1967 television production of The Thanksgiving Visitor earned Geraldine Page a second Emmy Award. Capote’s third short story about Buddy and Sook was “One Christmas“, published in 1983, and televised in 1994.